There are tools out there like Change.org, which allow humans to draft a petition, and then collect signatures. If gaining enough, these petitions can sometimes result in comment and action by public officials. There are also lobbyists out there who directly influence legislators, often drafting policy for them to introduce in their respective legislatures. There are even organisations that draft "model" public policy templates and promote them to legislators, who then simply change "City or State Name" to be whichever they represent - a notable example is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Module Two is, in a sense, a combination of these. It mimics the procedures of an actual legislative body, such as having committees, caucuses, majority/minority leaders, et cetera, all while producing policy proposals, debating and amending them, and ultimately voting on those proposals. We will send those successful proposals making it out of committees and ultimately passing a floor vote, to relevant Real World legislators, as being well-debated and deliberated ideas - model legislation, if you will - with the votes of affirmation effectively equivalent to signatures on petitions.

How it might work

Purristani Senate

Members of Module One, having identified their most passionate issues, may choose to join this "senate" of Project X. They may choose to join that of their city/county, their state, the national body, or some combination of these. Regardless, they will join committees based on those issues they identified. Leadership is contained within committees, and user rank determines seniority (qualified users may turn down a leadership assignment) and whichever party affiliation securing a majority (or forms a coalition majority caucus) determines whom shall chair each committee, as well as filling out other leadership roles. Other posts, in addition to a committee chairperson, may include a Majority Leader, a Minority Leader, and various Caucus Chairs. Those in these roles may whip votes supporting or opposing proposals, recruit more to the committee from Module One, and so on. A chairperson may choose to "pigeon hole" a proposal - which refusing to bring it to a vote - but a caucus can overcome such acts. Chairman Meow will then schedule anything passing a committee for a "voting period" open to the entire legislative body.

An Educational tool

All legislative activities will, as with Module One, result in various awards and decorations, all of which appear on the PolitiCard of each user. Throughout the tenure of a user in the virtual legislature, ideally, they will learn a great deal about how to construct successful proposals, or how to administratively work within a parliamentary system, and learn how to define, debate, and defend their ideas and those they agree with. Aside from being engaging, educational, and interesting, this module arms potential future candidates with some exposure to legislating within a body of many, of myriad party affiliations and ideologies.

Feedback

The BETA pool will be the first users, and will help us in perfecting the algorithms, gamification, design, and environment. We will find ways to ensure non-Americans have a role in this that is useful, while helping to prepare for conversion to their nation. In the BETA phase and the early days of the public rollout, we expect the population to be sparse, especially in less populated regions. Regardless, these are some of the key elements of our plan for Module Two. What are your thoughts of this? Do you have suggestions?

THE PROPAGANDA OFFICE, BUREAU OF HUMAN RELATIONS, MANAGES THIS SITE AS A GENERAL BLOG FROM THE PURRISTANI MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
FEATURED AND GUEST AUTHORS AND EXTERNAL LINKS TO OTHER INTERNET DOMAINS SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS AN ENDORSEMENT FROM THE MINISTRY OF THEIR VIEWS, OR THOSE TERMS, OR PRIVACY POLICIES CONTAINED THEREIN.

Be a Guest Blogger

Thank you for your interest. You may write about any subject you like. All you need to do to get started is what you are already doing right now – make contact!
A staff member will respond with the next steps. Be advised: among other things, such as a rate, if any, is that each post must include at least one large image, as well as a profile photo and short bio for the author. The author may be human or feline.
These and other details will be provided via your private correspondence with staff. Thank you again – looking forward!

Name

Email

Privacy Decree

The Chairman has decreed the following regarding visitor privacy:

Purristan takes privacy seriously. Aside from fellow felines at the Ministry, we are adding human servants all the time, thus the decree applies to them as well. In addition to the simple act of visiting the site, there are two areas visitors like you can engage us directly on this blog and in the future, and in both cases some of your information is collected. The following will explain how I have directed the Ministry to protect your privacy.

Like most website operators, the Ministry collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. Our purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how visitors use our blog. From time to time, the Ministry may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of our blog.

The only direct contact option* on this blog is the Guest Blogger option. That initial contact only records your submitted name and email. Future correspondece is not itself recorded. If a guest blog is posted, more is retained. Details on that is below.

* If you wish to contact the Ministry about others matters, please visit the main website. There is also a link to this contact form at the bottom of this page.

When you contact us intending to post a guest blog, we will record your submitted name and email address. In the course of your correspondence with staff, we will request more inofrmation. This information will be used to maintain a relationship with you, and to include in your guest blog posting.

Common bits of information requested include a profle photo, your social media links, a link to your blog, and any other things that will help users identify you as the author of the guest posting. This information is made public in your blog posting. We will not post publically anything if requsted.

Once your post is live, you may at any time request that we remove it entirely, or remove other supplied pieces of identifiable information. Such arrangements may be made via our exisiting correspondence.